What is trivia? Exeter author's Jeopardy showdown premieres this weekend

Friday

Sep 28, 2012 at 3:15 AMSep 28, 2012 at 5:38 AM

By ANDREA BULFINCHabulfinch@fosters.com

EXETER — When Brendan DuBois showed up for a round of auditions in Boston on his journey toward competing on Jeopardy, he took one look at those around him and thought his shot at televised trivia was gone.

"I thought I was toast," he said.

DuBois, of Exeter, was the only person to audition from New Hampshire, and surrounded by students of MIT and Boston University, he sized up the competition warily.

But, any doubts that invaded his mind, filled with facts and trivia already, subsided as he continued to advance all the way to Los Angeles. At least until the night before the shows taping.

"The night before, I did not sleep so well," he said.

DuBois completed an online audition answering 50 questions before moving on to the Boston audition where he took another quiz and played a practice round of Jeopardy with others trying out for the show. After that, he got a call inviting him to a filming in July.

He said he read a couple of books written by previous contestants to prepare, learning all he could about what it would be like to be taking questions from Alex Trebek. A crucial piece of information was gleaned from his research — if a buzzer is hit too soon, a computer freezes that contestant out, all but eliminating their chance to answer.

In order to avoid this, DuBois said he started practicing his clicking skills with a ball point pen at home while he and his wife watched the show on television.

Local viewers can watch DuBois' on the quiz show when his episode premieres at 2:07 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29, on WBZ Channel 4. Bumped from its usual time by Patriots All Access, DuBois said while he can't reveal whether he won rounds of final Jeopardy or not, viewers will be able to see him again on Monday evening at Jeopardy's regular time at 7:30 p.m. on the same channel.

DuBois, a local mystery author, who also filmed a Hometown Howdy that can be viewed on the Jeopardy website introducing himself to viewers, said he'll be watching the show at his brother's home in northern New Hampshire where they can view the episode on a Vermont channel.

His writing, along with reading and love of history and facts, is part of what helped him move along to the game show.

"As a writer, a lot of things stick in my mind," he said.

One of the things that struck him about the show was the tight security imposed on contestants to eliminate any chance of cheating. If one member moved to a different location in the studio, the whole group moved.

"They're very security conscious," he said.

The surreal feeling of actually being a part of the show quickly hit him once he was in the studio.

"I'm really here, this is really it," he said of what went through his mind.

And, while he never got to meet the host of the show, he said Trebek would go into the audience asking them what they wanted to know about the show.

"He's a charming individual," he said.

He did, however, run into actor Seth Rogen getting lunch at Sony Studios one day.

DuBois said he still plays along watching the show at home with his wife, but he does not answer things in the form of a question in conversation.

While he is now ineligible to compete until Trebek is no longer host of the show, he said, if given the opportunity, he'd do it again in a heartbeat.